Spaying and neutering cats is best solution to overpopulation

Friday, March 14, 2014

Spaying and neutering cats is best solution to overpopulation

With the bitterly cold winter we’ve been having, it’s hard to imagine that people are still trying to argue that it is “humane” to turn cats out to fend for themselves (“Solution to feral cats is control, not euthanasia,” March, 10, 2014). Feral cats are genetically identical to the cats who share our homes. They are not super-felines who can withstand sub-freezing temperatures, broken bones when they are hit by cars, or anemia when they are infested with fleas. Trap/neuter/return advocates call these cats’ deaths “natural attrition.” Here at PETA, we have seen “natural attrition” firsthand, and it isn’t pretty. We have seen stray and feral cats with eyeballs hanging out of their sockets, eyes and noses crusted shut from upper respiratory infections, tails and legs stripped of skin as a result of attacks by predators, frostbitten ears literally frozen off, and cats wasting away due to feline AIDS and leukemia.

The humane solution to the cat overpopulation crisis isn’t abandoning more cats on the streets to face horrible, lingering deaths. Preventing homelessness in the first place by spaying and neutering all cats and cracking down on illegal abandonment will reduce the numbers of stray and feral cats we see bolting from dumpster to crawl space throughout our communities.